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Why does my website not rank better for the keyword i am going for?

My website is www.canadafloraldelivery.com. I just can't seem to get my webpage ranked well for the keyword " Flowers Edmonton " . Also I can't seem to get my Google local listing on the map for many keywords. Is there something obvious that I am missing? Any help would be very appreciated.

7 Responses

Keri has made sure I stop by, and I see you've already received some good advice on this thread. I'll add what I know and see. I break this down into numbered points.

1. The floral industry has historically been one of the tougher ones, due to heavy spamming. Things are better than they were a couple of years ago, but like locksmith and auto dealer results, floral results can often be odder or tougher to break into than the results of less competitive, less spammy verticals. California florist, Cathy Hillen-Rulloda (http://www.avantegardens.com/) actually ended up becoming a participant on David Mihm's Local Search Ranking Factors (http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors-2012.shtml) in previous years due to her coverage of issues specifically affecting the floral industry. She might be a good person for you to be aware of, if you aren't already.

2. Yes, your website is over-optimized. Your title tags really need help. The Homepage title contains the word Edmonton twice, and though Google will tolerate this, it is my opinion that it is not an ideal thing to do. Word has it that you can use a keyword up to 2 times without being penalized, but I would not advise using any keyword more than once in the title tag of any page on your website. See this discussion on Linda Buquet's Local Search Forum regarding this statement from a former Google spam team member (http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/local-search-general-discussions/984-local-search-engine-optimization-warning-city-title.html). Title tags should read naturally. Rand's Whiteboard Friday that includes his advice on this topic is a must-view: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/6-changes-every-seo-should-make-before-the-over-optimization-penalty-hits-whiteboard-friday In addition to your title tags being over-optimized, there is broken code in the title tag of your About Page. So, bottom line, a compete rewrite of your title tags should be step one for you.

3. Keri mentions seeing a different address on your About Page. Perhaps you've removed that since she wrote this? I don't see it. I do see, correctly, that you have placed your complete NAP (name, address, phone number) in your website footer and that you have partial NAP on your contact page. You should put your business name at the beginning of the chunk of text displaying your address and phone number. Further, I would highly recommend that you encode this data in Schema. If you've never used Schema before, you can use this Schema creator tool: http://schema-creator.org/ Choose the 'organizations' tab from the left-hand menu. I would encode both the footer and contact page NAP in Schema, and be 100% sure that you are only publishing one address and one local phone number on your website, if you only have one shop.

4. Now let's do a phone number lookup in maps.google.com. Good. This is pulling up only one listing at the moment. Good to see. However, it looks like '205', which I believe is your suite number' is missing from your Google local listing. Is it in your dashboard? Google has had some odd bugs in recent times regarding suite addresses. The rule is that your suite address must be consistently published everywhere. It's on your site, but not on your + page. Is it entered in the dashboard?

5. The same search for your business name is showing just one listing for Canada Floral Delivery, but I do note some other florists on the same street as yours. Just want to double check with you that Grower Direct and other florists apparently located on 41 Avenue are their own companies and have nothing to do with your business.

You should never put geographic terms in your business description and you've got Edmonton in there multiple times as well as other geo terms. Should definitely be edited.

7. Competitive analysis is different for every business. I recommend that you run your site through this tool: http://www.51blocks.com/online-marketing-tools/free-local-analysis/ This will show you how you stack up against your competitors on a local level. This will assess the quantity and consistency of your citations which is a giant ranking factor.

8. Hmm...here's a good clue. I just checked your address against the proximity/centroid cluster of your competitors and it appears you are pretty far away from the cluster. The bulk of your competitors are located north of the river in the area Google Maps is designating as 'Downtown'. You are apparently some miles away from this, so this can definitely affect your ranking abilities.

So, these are some thoughts. What I've written here cannot take the place of an in-depth formal audit. You have many opportunities for improvements, Christopher, only some of which can be covered by a first-glance impression like mine.

Hi there and thank you so much for the detailed response. I have tried to implement the changes that you posted above. I can not get the www.51blocks.com to work as we are in Canada and it does not seem to work for us northerners.

I have reworded the content of the home page to read more fluently. and am in the works of rewording all my title tags as well.

As for the suite #205 I do put it in the dashboard of Google places but it just doesn't seem to show on my +page.

I am encounter a problem with Google not fully recognizing that I have a Facebook page. I am pretty sure it is public and I have a few likes but I just can't seem to get Facebook to give me more credit for the page that we have done.

I have had an Audit of my website done by the BDC (Business Development bank of Canada) And is showed that I should be doing better than I am for Local search terms. Does your company offer in depth Audit? Getting organic traffic in Edmonton Alberta really means a lot for me and my shop.

After quickly glancing at your site my only suggestion would be to be careful how much you stuff your keywords into your content. Don't get me wrong, it's important to integrate your keywords in the content of your website but here is an example of a bit too much and can easily cause Google to flag your site as spammy.

"Flowers Edmonton, For Flower delivery Edmonton AB. Our Edmonton flower shop will ensure that your delivery are fresh and beautiful every time. Our Edmonton flower shop is a part of the FTD flower network and we have made great relationships with florists all across the country. Send flowers in Edmonton or Canada wide with our same day delivery guarantee. 100% guarantee on all our products and gifts. Edmonton flowers done right.Click here to see a page all about our Flower Shop in Edmonton!"

I would work with a copywriter that has experience with SEO best practices to improve the content on your site, I think this would really help with your on-page optimization.

With regards to your local SEO, again make sure that you are careful with using too many keywords. Here is the current description on your local listing:

I've asked our local expert to step in, but my first couple of comments are this:

Home page is way overstuffed for Edmonton. The text isn't very natural, and there are a bunch of keywords at the bottom.

Second comment is I can't tell what is your address. The footer has one address, but the about page has a different address (even the internet address), and then when I search your phone number on Google, I see yet a different suite number and address. Consistent, accurate citations are real important in local search.

Brad makes an excellent point re regular organic rankings. RE local listings, assuming you've verified and done all the standard on page work to your Local page, it's time to start building citations. These are Name Address & Telephone references. The more places Google sees you're address the more likely you are to rank in local listings.

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